Dear All,
while searching for some photos in my Dropbox, I came across a global map of pastoralists which shows India absolutely blank.
It is from 2004 or earlier.
By now we know that India has maybe the largest and most diverse groups of pastoralists in the world.
As an anecdote, maybe 10 years ago when I gave a presentation about pastoralists at the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, one of the doyens of India's animal husbandry sector admonished me, saying "Madam, in your country there are pastoralists, but in India we have only farmers."
I think a similar situation applies with rangelands these days. It's a term that just isn't in use, because government only thinks about wastelands, due to a colonial legacy that has never been dissected and done away with.
All the more important that a rangelands atlas for India materializes... Maybe it can be addressed statewise, everybody contributing their local expertise and ground knowledge, as we did during the Kullu Workshop that led to the Kullu Call which shows the enormous significance of pastoralism for India's livestock sector.
Kind regards
Ilse
--
Recipient of Nari Shakti (Women's power) Award by the President of India in 2017
Co-director of the Marwar Camel Culture Festival
Learn more about camels in "Camel Karma. Twenty Years among India's Camel
Nomads" published by Tranquebar Press.
www.camel-karma.com.
Follow on Twitter @IlseKohler